Thursday, April 23, 2009

JavaVerified: LWUIT's Killer Feature?

I'm generally very excited about Nokia's upcoming Ovi store, I think it has the potential to empower smaller developers to deliver content to end users.

One of the decisions made by Nokia is to go with Java Verified for the QA and signing of application for Ovi. Java Verified has an issue with requiring a cost for every tested device & every failure. This cost can become remarkably high the more devices need certification/signing, here LWUIT really shines. Its approach of "One JAR for all devices" makes a world of difference in the Java Verified cost for signing, it can make the difference between turning a profit and losing money when publishing smaller applications.

I've always viewed LWUIT as a tool to assist the smaller shops and individual hackers to reach mass market device deployment and this is a concrete example of this perspective.

4 comments:

I agree with maffeis. I fear that Java Verified could become a "J2ME killer" rather than a killer feature. The testing and monetary burden imposed by JV makes it fairly inaccessible for small/independent developers - the people that have made the iPhone App Store such a huge success and also, I suspect, the demographic most likely to use LWUIT.